This application relates to a cooling scheme for use in cooling a panel adjacent an upstream end of a gas turbine engine combustor.
Gas turbine engines are known and may include a fan delivering air into a bypass duct as propulsion air. The fan also delivers air into a core engine where it passes to a compressor. Air is compressed in the compressor and passes into a combustor section. That air is mixed with fuel and ignited in the combustion section. Products of the combustion pass downstream over turbine rotors driving them to rotate.
The combustor is provided with heat resistant panels to protect the components from the very high temperatures generated by the combustor.
A swirler is also mounted within a bulkhead adjacent an upstream end of the combustor and provides a mixture of air and fuel into a combustion chamber and carries a flame once ignited.
Panels are positioned immediately downstream of the swirler and have typically been provided with cooling air. The cooling air has typically provided skin cooling to an inner surface of the panel.
The swirler results in the air and fuel swirling in coherent directions. The cooling air tends to intermix with these swirled fluids often in a distinct direction from the swirled fluids.